In the stress of my new job, there was an auspicious anniversary that I missed last week. On February 23, 1945, the Marines raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi on the tiny Japanese island called Iwo Jima. The iconic photo was possibly one of the most famous pictures of World War 2. This year marked the 76th anniversary.
In 2008, I watched the movie Flags of Our Fathers which dramatized the event. I learned about the men and the struggles that they brought back from the war. One of them was Ira Hayes, a Pima Native American. Sadly he struggled with being a hero and was found dead in a ditch in Arizona. He had been drinking and possibly died from exposure. Hayes’ life was immortalized by the song Ballad of Ira Hayes. Hayes’s story is not unique; countless of veterans have come back from war and the…
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